Transition between preschool and comprehensive school – Analyses of how preschool participation and socio-economic context affect children´s early educational trajectories

This project analyses how children´s preschool participation and socio-economic context of family, preschool, and neighbourhood, affect the transition to comprehensive school and subsequent educational trajectories.

Departing from a full population study of all preschool aged children between 2014–2024 in Sweden, the project focuses on four analytical levels - individual, family, preschool, and residential area.

The incorporation of sociological and geographical perspectives creates a novel analytical strategy that employs different individual level register and survey data, as well as methodological approaches such as Multilevel Modelling (MLM) and K Nearest Neighbours (KNN).The project’s aim is accomplished through two interrelated sub-studies.

Sub-study 1 consists of a full population analysis of the relationship between preschool participation and children´s social contexts, and the association these contexts have with children´s transition to comprehensive school. Sub-study 2 is a cohort study of all parents in Uppsala about to enrol their children in comprehensive school.

This sub-study analyses how parents’ preferences regarding school choice and housing mediate the contextual conditions investigated in Sub-study 1.Anticipated results will inform stakeholders on how school markets are spatially composed and connected in terms of supply (school characteristics, geography and competition) and demand (children’s educational trajectories and different life chances).